


Bonding exercises

by tuyu0326



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad BDSM Etiquette, Dubious Consent, M/M, Tags Are Hard, Wet Dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-03 02:01:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10957353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuyu0326/pseuds/tuyu0326
Summary: TW dubconSet after S1E2 | deviates from canon eventsKeith has been having dreams about Shiro - the kind that end in a mess.He tries to keep them a secret, but all goes awry when the Paladins do some more bonding exercises.





	Bonding exercises

_Keith is gagged. His hands are tied behind his back, and his left ankle is chained to a post. The length of the chain is a couple of metres, if that. He yanks his foot a couple of times, testing the chain. It rattles but doesn’t give._

If I had my knife _, he thinks_ , then at least I could cut my hands free _._

_He looks around in the darkness for something to use in lieu of his blade, crawling from the post as far as the chain will allow. He finds nothing._

_Although there are no obvious light sources, he can see the post and chain clearly. The rest of the room is in complete darkness. He cannot make out the walls. It feels like there might not be walls at all. Like the room might stretch out endlessly._

_Keith stops searching. He lies down on his side and tries to think. He realises that he is naked. Had he been naked a moment ago? He starts to feel cold. No, not cold. Something else._

_Then he becomes aware of a presence. Something behind him. There were no footsteps, but he can sense that somebody is there. He sits up slowly. Turns his head. He looks up into familiar eyes._

_Keith tries to speak but quickly remembers that he is gagged. He feels his cheeks grow hot._

_Shiro looks down at him, his expression unreadable and unmoving. Keith waits for Shiro to speak, or to remove his gag, but Shiro does nothing. The silence stretches out._

_Then Shiro moves towards the post. He reaches down and grabs Keith’s chain with his Galra arm, and pulls. Hard. Keith’s whole body is yanked backwards and he lands on his front with a thud. He lets out a cry, but it is muffled by the gag. Pain shoots through his ankle and up his leg. For a moment he can’t move, half from the pain and half from the shock._

_He turns his head and glares up at Shiro._

_Shiro’s expression is no longer blank: he smiles now, and in this light it is difficult to tell, but Keith could swear his eyes are a different colour. Almost yellow._

_‘I don’t know why you look so pissed off,’ Shiro says. It is Shiro’s voice, but different. ‘After all,’ he continues, his tone softer now, ‘this is what you want, isn’t it?’_

_Keith tries to push himself onto his knees – not an easy feat with his hands behind his back – but Shiro puts a foot on top of him, and forces him back to the ground, slowly. Shiro’s movement is leisurely. He makes it clear that he isn’t exerting himself. When Keith is flat back on the ground, Shiro waits a moment before stepping off._

_Then, Keith remembers that one of his legs is free. In a bid to take Shiro by surprise, he rolls quickly onto his back and kicks, aiming for the groin, but Shiro sees it coming and takes a step back._

_Shiro smirks. ‘You know what happens to boys who misbehave, Keith?’ he says. Keith notices a whip in Shiro’s hand that he could have sworn wasn’t there before._

_Shiro cracks the whip against the floor once. Keith recoils at the sound, and Shiro laughs. Keith wants to shout, but all he can manage is a kind-of snarl. He’s not sure if Shiro even hears._

_‘What’s the matter?’ Shiro says. ‘You don’t want to be whipped?’_

_Keith glares in response._

_‘No?’ says Shiro, and his gaze falls from Keith’s face. ‘Looks like your cock disagrees.’_

_Keith looks down. He is hard._

_All of a sudden, Shiro is between his legs. He takes Keith’s cock in his human hand, and with his thumb wipes off the dew-like drop of precum that sits on the tip. Keith shudders involuntarily. Shiro’s grip is firm and warm. It feels good. Then, Shiro takes his face down near Keith’s cock and, looking Keith straight in the eyes, sucks the precum off his finger._

Fuck _, Keith thinks. He turns his head to the side. He can’t let Shiro see his face screw up with pleasure._

_Then he feels Shiro’s Galra hand on his chest. At his neck. Shiro is above him._

_‘If it was down to me, I wouldn’t have tied you up,’ says Shiro. ‘I don’t need to. You know that I’m stronger than you, Keith.’ Shiro starts to tighten his hand around Keith’s neck. It glows pink. ‘But you asked so nicely.’_

_Shiro’s hand starts to get hot around his neck. Keith struggles, but he cannot move. His hands are pinned under his back, tied together. He can hardly breathe._

_He looks up at Shiro desperately. He gasps and groans for air, but his protests are drowned out by the buzzing sound from Shiro’s Galra hand. The heat is overwhelming._

_At last, Shiro releases Keith, and Keith coughs violently. He gulps up sweet oxygen but the crushing sensation and heat linger on._

_Shiro leans back. He takes Keith’s cock in his human hand again. ‘Fuck, Keith,’ he says. ‘You’re close, aren’t you?’_

_Keith doesn’t look down. He can’t look down. His neck throbs. But his cock feels so good as Shiro massages it in his hand._

_‘Don’t come yet,’ Shiro commands. ‘Turn over. On your knees.’ Shiro doesn’t wait for Keith to respond, and flips him over. ‘Put your knees wider apart,’ he says._

_With his thumbs, he pulls Keith’s cheeks apart. He laughs. ‘Fuck, Keith. That is the tightest hole I’ve ever seen.’ He starts to kiss it. He licks around it, pulling it as wide as he can with his fingers, plunging his tongue inside._

_Keith trembles, his forehead against the ground, his hands behind his back. His cock is so hard, and it craves Shiro’s touch._

_Shiro pulls away for a second. ‘You’re so fucking tight, Keith,’ he says. ‘We’re gonna have to try something else.’_

_Then, Keith hears it. The buzz of Shiro’s Galra hand again. As he realises what’s about to happen, he tries to crawl away, but Shiro has his human hand locked around Keith’s thigh, preventing his escape. He can feel the heat of Shiro’s fingers as they get closer to his hole. He cries out in a panic, but the sound is muffled by his gag._

_As Keith lies with his head on the ground, shivering in anticipation of the excruciating pain that awaits, he notices another pair of feet beside him. He looks up._

_It is Shiro. A second Shiro. He can still feel the first Shiro’s human hand on his thigh, and the heat of his Galra hand just inches away from his hole._

_The second Shiro looks down at Keith with a neutral expression, as if completely oblivious to the fact that Keith’s hole is seconds away from being torn open._

_He speaks. ‘Keith, come on. You need to focus.’_

Focus on what? _Keith thinks. Shiro’s voice is irregular, like a reflection on shimmering water…_

The next thing Keith knew, he was awake and coming violently into the sheets. It took him a second to register where he was and what had just happened. When the realisation washed over him, he buried his face in his pillow. _Fuck_ , he thought. _Not again_.

*

Keith stripped the sheets and dumped them in the laundry chute. At least Altean tech made wet dreams easy to clean up. His clothes were damp with sweat, so he dumped them in the laundry chute as well, and headed to the showers.

A year on the desert had taught Keith to be sparing with water, but on the castle, it didn’t seem that they were short of resources. When they first arrived, after the others had gone to bed, he indulged himself with the longest shower he’d had since he’d been at the Garrison. He’d taken special care washing his scalp and hair. Then he’d washed the rest of his body, soaping and scrubbing every inch meticulously. The water at his place on the desert was cold, and sometimes the pressure was so poor that it barely dribbled from the tap. The showers in the castle, on the other hand, were the best he’d ever had. Better than the showers at the Garrison by a long way. He had felt the tension in his muscles evaporate as the hot water washed over him. It was strange to think how, only a few days ago, he’d been all alone in the desert, never letting the tap run for more than ninety seconds at a time. No more than a week could have passed since they came here, but those days on the desert already seemed like a different lifetime.

Now that he was standing under the hot water, Keith felt more awake. He recalled the contents of his dream. It was the second time he’d had a wet dream about Shiro since they’d come to Arus.

All those months ago, when the Kerberos mission was reported to have failed due to pilot error, Keith had known that it was a lie. Of course, he recognised the improbability of it all – he knew as well as anyone how skilled a pilot Shiro was. But it wasn’t just that. Keith had felt somewhere deep inside him that Shiro was still alive. Shiro was somewhere out there, and he was coming back.

At first he’d thought that he might just be in denial. That’s what the instructors at the Garrison said. They told him that he was acting up because he wasn’t dealing with his grief properly. They tried to make him go to counselling, but he refused. Keith had always hated the Garrison, and now that the one person who had made it bearable was gone, he had no reason to stay.

Out in the desert, his conviction that Shiro was alive only grew stronger. He’d first headed out there with nowhere else to go, but it wasn’t long before he started to feel the pull of the Blue Lion. The energy he felt – it wasn’t something he could put into words, but he had known that something was going to happen, and whatever that something was, it involved Shiro.

Keith had been on top of his shack when the pod entered earth’s atmosphere. He had watched as it burned through the sky towards the Garrison. And the feeling inside him that had kept telling him that Shiro was still alive now told him to get to that pod, fast. And so he sped to it without wasting a second.

Keith had not let himself think that Shiro might be dead. He’d been so stubborn that he’d barely even acknowledged the possibility. But, in spite of it all, when he got to the pod and saw Shiro lying there, he felt a tension in him wash away; tension that he’d been holding onto for so long, tension that he had hardly been aware of. He felt relief. And, something else – another feeling. In the heat of the moment, he didn’t have time to give it any thought. At the time, all he could think about was getting Shiro to safety, away from the Garrison. But as Keith sat against the wall in his shack that night, looking over to where Shiro slept, he realised what the feeling was.

When Keith first moved out to the desert, he vowed to himself that he would get over Shiro. He would stop fantasising about Shiro fucking him while he masturbated. He would stop thinking about Shiro holding him. He would stop thinking about the possibility that they might ever be ‘together’. They had never been a couple, and Keith knew that Shiro had never thought of him that way.

Shiro had been his mentor. Shiro had made him fight to better himself. Shiro had made him grow. And Keith had sworn to Shiro that one day he would one-up him. Keith had smirked when he swore that he would be the better pilot, and Shiro had grinned in admiration of Keith’s zealousness.

But Keith forgot all those promises when he stood beside Shiro and felt the overwhelming size of Shiro’s body against his own. In those moments, he just wanted Shiro to hold him, to protect him. At first Keith couldn’t admit these feelings to himself – his mind found it difficult to process his feelings. But his body didn’t. His body ached for Shiro. Every time Shiro was nearby, all the cells in Keith’s body filled with joy. Being with Shiro was so intense sometimes that he could barely stand it. And so, in time, he came to terms with his feelings.

At first, trying to get over Shiro had been tough. He would go a week without masturbating, but then he’d wake up one morning, his cock hard and his mind recalling the sensation of what it was like being next to Shiro. In his head he would play out a fantasy of being pinned under Shiro, of Shiro sucking his nipples and his cock. Shiro would fuck him. Shiro would hold him tight. Then he would come. And so his resolve to get over Shiro was broken again and again. But as time went on, his memories of Shiro grew faint. He started to forget how big Shiro felt as they stood beside each other. He started to forget what it felt like when Shiro smiled at him. Around that time, the energy from the Blue Lion was weaker too, and so Keith found himself going out less and less. He had kept in good shape until then, but he started to slack off exercising too. He ate less. He lost weight. He stopped masturbating.

Eventually he started to believe that perhaps, just maybe, he was finally over Shiro. He thought that now they might finally be equals. They could be friends. They could be rivals. But when Shiro came back to earth, and Keith watched him as he slept in the darkness of the shack, he realised that he had been wrong. He was not over Shiro.

Having finished in the shower, Keith dried himself off and headed back to his room. He slowed as he walked past Shiro’s door, expecting a sound, perhaps - some kind of indication that Shiro was there. Back in the Garrison, Shiro had always done push-ups at night, and Keith had heard his rhythmic exhales when he walked past his room. But now there was only silence. He wanted to knock. He wanted to see Shiro. He wanted to talk. Amidst all the chaos, they hadn’t had a chance to talk properly since Shiro had got back. But what would Keith say anyway? In a way, he felt that his dreams about Shiro had put a barrier between them. Even if they had the opportunity to talk in private now, it would all be ruined by the guilt. So Keith went back to bed.

Now wide awake, he took out the knife from behind his pillow and turned it over in his hands, like he always did when he couldn’t sleep. He rubbed his thumb over the purple emblem. It glowed faintly in the dark.

The knife was, for Keith, at once both a source of comfort and one of unease. Even on the nights when he did not look at it, he could feel its presence behind his pillow. It teased him silently with its secrets. The only clue it offered of its origins was the emblem, which Keith had not seen anywhere else. 

But now, Keith was not thinking about the blade. He was thinking about Shiro. He was thinking about how he could devote himself to his duty as a Paladin of Voltron while also pining for its leader. He wondered how he could even start to get over Shiro when they slept with only one wall and a few metres between them.

The sun was already coming up when Keith, still solutionless, fell into a light sleep.

*

‘Rise and shine, Paladins! No time to be dilly-dallying. We’ve got another exciting day of bonding exercises ahead of us!’

Keith had hardly slept at all when Coran’s voice came over the intercom. He sighed before counting to five and rolling out of bed.

The exercises in the morning went relatively smoothly. First they worked on forming closer bonds with their lions, starting with a repeat of the nose dive exercise. Shiro once again outperformed them all. Keith pulled out of the dive just before Shiro, doing better than he had previously. Lance, much to the hurt of his pride, ended up in the sand again.

After lunch, they moved onto team bonding exercises. Keith started to feel the sleeplessness catch up with him. His reflexes became sluggish. He kept urging himself to focus but he couldn’t. He needed to rest.

First, they faced the gladiator.

They cleared the first couple of levels with ease, working better as a team now. But when the difficulty was stepped up a third time they started to struggle. Lance, Hunk and Pidge each managed to keep it off for a while, but then it came for Keith. Fast. He managed to parry the gladiator’s attacks a few times, but he couldn’t get in any offensive moves. The gladiator was faster than him.

Then came an attack that he couldn’t block. First the gladiator disarmed him. Then it hit him square in the chest and sent him flying backwards. He landed badly, pain shooting through his body. He took a moment to recover. When he looked up, the gladiator was above him, its staff raised, ready to finish him. Keith didn’t know what to do. Resorting to basic survival instincts, he raised his arms over his head and braced himself.

Then came the sound of the staff slicing through the air. But there was no impact. Not against Keith, anyway. He lowered his arms and looked up to see Shiro standing in front of him. Shiro had intercepted the blow, catching the staff with his Galra hand.

 Shiro turned towards Keith slightly as he wrestled with the gladiator for control of the staff. ‘Keith, are you okay?’ he called. But Keith couldn’t respond.

‘Come on, let’s end this!’ cried Lance.

Lance and Hunk opened fire on the gladiator, distracting it. It turned towards them and loosened its grip on the staff.

Shiro didn’t waste a second. He let go of the staff and punched the gladiator with such force that it flew to the other side of the training deck. It bounced once, then slid across the floor. Sparks crackled on its torso where Shiro’s fist had made impact.

Hunk broke the silence. ‘Is it dead? Did we kill it?’

Pidge squinted at it. ‘I mean, it looks pretty busted.’

Shiro offered Keith a hand up. When he was on his feet, Shiro kept his grip on Keith for a moment before releasing him.

Shiro started to say something, but stopped himself when Allura and Coran walked in.

‘That was… better,’ Allura said. ‘At least, from some of you.’ She looked pointedly at Keith.

‘Yeah Keith, what the hell happened?’ said Lance, his tone more patronizing than accusative. ‘Was it too hard for you?’ Lance smirked, and Keith glared at him in response. Lance was loving it.

‘Lance,’ Shiro said firmly.

Lance looked like he was about to say something else, but Coran cut in. ‘Yes, well done Paladins. A marked improvement on your previous performance. There will be plenty more opportunities for you to face the gladiator once it has been… repaired’ - he looked at where the gladiator lay in the corner – ‘but for now we must move on to the next activity. Come along then!’

It was during the next exercise that shit hit the fan.

They were going to ‘form Voltron’ with their minds again.

At first Keith was relieved that this would be the next activity. He’d done well enough at it the first time, and now that he was drained from all the physical training, he thought it would make for a good change of pace.

They put on their headsets and sat in a circle, as they had before. Then they focused on forming their lions.

‘Remember Paladins,’ said Coran. ‘No walls, no secrets between you.’

Keith had forgotten how loud the thoughts of the other paladins were. It was like each of them was murmuring multiple thoughts at once - a polyphony of anxieties. The first time they’d done the exercise, Keith had managed to channel it all out pretty quickly. He had just focused on Red. He had focused on his bond with her. He had focused on forming Voltron. But this time all their thoughts were too loud to ignore.

‘Paladins,’ said Coran. ‘Think about forming _Voltron_.’

They started again. This time, the noise of all their thoughts was quieter. Keith could feel the others focusing on their lions. Even Pidge was doing a good job. But no matter how hard he tried to think about Red, he just couldn’t concentrate. It wasn’t just his body that was drained, but his mind as well.

Soon enough, he felt the others all moving their lions together, preparing to form Voltron. Only Keith hadn’t formed his lion with his mind.

Shiro spoke. ‘Keith, come on. You need to focus.’

_‘Keith, come on. You need to focus,’ said the second Shiro standing over him._

Suddenly, and with violent clarity, Keith recalled the contents of his dream. He remembered being chained up. He remembered the way that Shiro had wiped the precum off his cock and eaten him out. He remembered Shiro dominating him. And as he recalled the dream, it was relayed through the headset to the other Paladins.

Keith felt the others’ focus dissipate. They stopped thinking about their lions. They stopped thinking about anything. They were dumbstruck. Even Lance had nothing to say.

Keith was barely even aware of himself as he stood up and threw the headset to the floor. He wasn’t sure if he walked or ran from the training deck. He just knew that he had to get out of there.

He had half-expected Shiro to call out to him, to tell him to stop. But no one said a word. They just watched in silence as he left.

 *

Keith’s first instinct was to get out of the castle, fast, but with nowhere in particular to go, he headed down to the beach. The setting sun was warm on his face, and the wind from the sea pulled through his hair. On earth, Keith had never been to the ocean. No one had ever taken him. Even still, being here he felt a strange sense of familiarity. With the sand and the vast and empty openness, he recalled his shack out on the desert. He hadn’t liked being there at the time, but now he wanted to go back. He wanted to be alone. It had been his home, after all. He had felt safe there.

As he looked out over the waves, he tried to think of ways to resolve the mess that he’d just caused.

He had never intended to tell Shiro how he felt, let alone the rest of the Paladins, and so for his fucked-up dream to be transmitted directly to all of them… In the past, Keith had definitely fantasised about Shiro getting a bit rough with him, but his daytime fantasies had never extended to the intensity of the previous night’s dream. Even Keith was shocked at how graphic it was as he was forced to recall its contents during the bonding exercise.

There was no way he could explain it to Shiro. There was no way he could explain it to the others. Lance would never let him live it down. And Shiro. Would Shiro ever look at him in the same way again?

Keith spent a while at the beach, apprehensive about going back and having to face the other Paladins. He sat for some time on the sand, soaking up the last of the sun’s rays and looking out over the sea.

When the sun was just about to set, Keith figured that the others would probably be eating dinner, and so he headed back to the castle and quietly went to his room. Being at the beach had refreshed him, but he was still tired from his lack of sleep the night before, and so he lay down on his bed to nap.

Before long, he heard footsteps out in the corridor. They drew closer and stopped outside his room. There was a pause. Then a voice. ‘Keith.’ It was Shiro.

 _Shit_ , thought Keith. _I can’t speak to him. Not yet._ He didn’t respond _._

There was a short silence before Shiro spoke again. ‘Keith, I’m coming in,’ he said.

The door slid open and Shiro stepped inside.

‘Keith, are you awake?’ Shiro said softly.

Keith sat up in bed but didn’t say anything.

‘Are you okay?’ Shiro said. Keith could tell that Shiro was making an effort to sound natural. Probably not an easy feat, given what he’d been forced to witness on the training deck.

Keith grunted in response. When Shiro said nothing in response, Keith realised that he’d have to explain himself.

‘Shiro,’ he said. ‘I…’ he looked up at where Shiro was leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his chest. Shiro was making an effort to look casual, as if everything was just like it used to be. Before Voltron. Before Kerberos. But Shiro looked older now, and it wasn’t just the white in his hair and his Galra arm. He looked more worn down than he used to.

‘You weren’t supposed to see that,’ Keith continued, ‘any of it. Fuck – I’m so sorry, Shiro. You must think I’m insane.’

Keith waited for a moment to see if Shiro would interject, but unusually he stayed quiet. Shiro always knew the right thing to say, no matter who he was speaking to. But now he was stumped, thanks to Keith and his wet dream.

‘You know,’ Keith said, taking his eyes off Shiro and looking down at the floor again. ‘I used to think of you like a brother.’ Keith smiled to himself. ‘You made me feel… safe. You were the only person I liked spending time with. You were the only person I could really talk to. But, you know that I never really had a family, Shiro. So I guess I didn’t really know what I was saying…’ Keith took a moment to think. ‘At first, I thought that everything you made me feel was what it might feel like to have a family. But then I started to feel… other things, and I realised, maybe I didn’t see you as a brother after all.’

Keith sighed. Shiro was listening, silently. ‘I always knew that you were alive, Shiro. I knew that you would come back. If you asked me how I couldn’t tell you - I just knew. And while you were out there, I tried to get stronger. I tried to be strong like you. And I tried to… stop thinking about you in that way. At one point I even thought I managed. But then you came back, and…’ he trailed off. ‘Shit. This must all sound so fucked up to you. But Shiro, I really don’t want this to get in the way of everything. I’m serious about Voltron, really. I want to defeat the Galra. With you. And with Hunk and Pidge, and Lance. And I know that what went down today makes things awkward as fuck for you. But… I’m trying to change… I don’t want this to ruin everything.’ Even as Keith spoke, though, he wasn’t sure what he meant. Did he mean that he didn’t want his feelings for Shiro to get in the way of their duty as Paladins of Voltron? Or did he mean that he hoped it didn’t ruin their friendship (if that’s what they had been - friends)?

Shiro stood in silence for a while, taking in everything that Keith had said. The silence stretched out between them. Eventually, Keith looked up at Shiro, who was gazing at him with thoughtful eyes.

At last, Shiro spoke. ‘You were all alone out there on the desert, right?’

Keith nodded.

‘And you hardly saw anyone that whole time?’

Keith nodded again.

Shiro waited a moment before speaking again. ‘Were you lonely?’

Keith didn’t nod. He didn’t say anything.

When Shiro saw that Keith wasn’t going to answer, Shiro spoke. ‘I missed you, Keith,’ he said. Keith’s heart skipped a beat. ‘I missed you when we flew out to Kerberos. And when I was taken by the Galra, too. I… there’s still a lot that I don’t remember. But I do remember that I thought about you. A lot.

‘By the time I’d worked out how I felt about you, back at the Garrison, we’d already started making preparations for Kerberos. I thought that it wouldn’t be fair on you…’

Keith couldn’t believe his ears. For a moment he entertained the idea that he might be dreaming again, only this time his destruction at Shiro’s hands was emotional rather than physical. If Shiro had felt that way about Keith back at the Garrison, Keith hadn’t picked up on it.  

‘You know, Keith, I thought that you might have felt the same way about me. I mean, I wasn’t sure, but you acted differently when it was just the two of us… And when we left for Kerberos, I thought to myself, _Should I have told him?_ I thought about it a lot. I thought, _What if he moves on? What if he finds someone else?_ ’ Shiro paused for a moment. Keith was speechless.

After some time, Shiro spoke again. ‘Keith,’ he said. ‘Keith. I missed you so much.’

Keith stood up and slowly walked over to Shiro, all the while maintaining eye contact. He was hesitant, and still in doubt that this was real. Facing each other, Keith realised that he’d forgotten how much bigger Shiro was than him. Taller, but broader as well.

Keith put his arms around Shiro’s waist. Then Shiro pulled Keith into him. His chest was warm. Keith felt safe in Shiro’s arms. He had dreamt of this for so long. Every time he’d been near Shiro, he had wondered what it would be like to close the distance. Just to be a little closer. Every time they’d been near each other, a shock-like sensation had pulsed through Keith’s whole body – an electrical impulse urging him to confess. And now that he held Shiro in his arms, every cell in his body was bursting with gratitude. He squeezed Shiro tighter.

Shiro rested his chin on Keith’s head and sighed. He had relaxed out of his leader persona, and now things felt more like they used to, when it had just been the two of them, only now they were both being open about their feelings.

‘It’s been so long since I’ve been hugged,’ Shiro laughed.

‘Huh?’ said Keith, into Shiro’s chest. But when he thought about it, it was obvious. There’s no way Shiro had been getting any hugs on the Galra ship, or on the Kerberos mission for that matter.

Then Keith tried to remember the last time that he’d been hugged, but no matter how hard he thought, nothing came to mind. Even though he’d been on earth until a few days ago, he couldn’t recall the last time he’d been held by another human being.

As they embraced, Shiro felt his chest start to grow damp. He pulled away and saw that Keith was crying.

‘Keith, what’s up?’ he said.

Keith wiped away his tears with his arm and sniffed. ‘Nothing,’ he said.

‘People don’t cry about nothing. I’ve never seen you cry before,’ said Shiro.

Keith swallowed. Then he looked Shiro in the eyes. ‘I’m happy,’ he said. ‘I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long time. And I’m still not sure if this is real.’

Shiro returned his gaze. Then, slowly he moved in and kissed Keith. And Keith returned the kiss.

Shiro’s tongue dipped inside Keith’s mouth. It entered in a way that was powerful but not aggressive. - just like Shiro. Shiro put his hands on Keith’s face, and Keith put his on Shiro’s hips. His body was still in a state of ecstasy. Shiro was here. Shiro’s tongue was in his mouth, and his body was in Keith’s arms. Keith was still scared that he might wake up.

After a minute or so, Keith pulled away. Then he took Shiro’s human hand in his and led him over to the bed, where they lay down beside each other and kissed again.

Then, Shiro propped himself up on his elbow and said with a grin, ‘What next? Do you want me to tie you down?’

‘Huh?’ said Keith.

‘Is that what you’re into? It’s what you were thinking about earlier, right?’

In all the excitement, Keith had almost forgotten about the embarrassment of the ‘bonding exercise’ fiasco. He put his face in his hands and rolled over, away from Shiro.

‘That was… a dream,’ he explained.

Shiro scooped Keith up in his arms. He whispered in Keith’s ear, ‘Is it a dream you want to come true?’

‘Fuck, Shiro, I don’t know,’ Keith said. He was blushing.

Shiro chuckled. ‘Have a think about it, then,’ he said, squeezing Keith tight.

*

In the middle of the night, Keith woke up.

Shiro was running his fingers through Keith’s hair. His eyes were closed, and he was on the verge of sleep.

‘Shiro,’ Keith whispered.

Shiro was silent for a moment, before grunting in response.

‘When all this is over, when we’re back on earth,’ Keith said, ‘will you take me to the ocean?’

Shiro didn’t say anything for a while. Keith thought he might have fallen asleep. But after a few moments, he replied. ‘The ocean?’ said Shiro.

‘Yeah,’ said Keith.

Shiro shifted slightly in the sheets. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I love the beach.’

Keith smiled. Then he lay his head on Shiro’s chest and went back to sleep.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> @hudansi on tumblr


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